It's time for "Ask Your Government!" The latest answer comes in response to a user-submitted question from "Ask Your Government" Google Moderator member Glassboro Frank who asks: "One of responsibilities of the federal government is to "fix the Standard of Weights and Measures" and yet we now live with a hodgepodge mix of Imperial and metric units. When are we going to fully commit to becoming a metric country?"

The state Transportation Department is getting ready to spend $1.5 million replacing metric signs along Interstate 10 with mileage signs, to the chagrin of some businesses along the highway. The state plans to use federal stimulus money to replace the signs, which it previously planned to replace as the signs wore out. The signs marking kilometers instead of miles were first installed in the early 1980s when I-19 and a handful of other roads were signed in metric as the country considered a full conversion. That conversion hasn’t happened.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) will celebrate World Metrology Day on May 20 by holding a symposium in Gaithersburg, Md. The symposium on “Measurements in Commerce: Metrology Underpinning Economic Development” will emphasize how measurement science and standards play an everyday role in our global economy.